Paranoid guide to traveling in 0.0
Remember * Before you travel, check the map for blobs (lots of pilots in system), and red (lots of kills/poddings in last hour) * Fit at least one WCS, this will save your ass guaranteed at some point if you are hauling things, but remember that if you are fitted for combat this will also severely impact your ability to target someone. * If you have something expensive have someone scout ahead, or join a convoy * Anything beyond this is recommended, but really that's all there is to it. the rest is for the paranoid How Worried Should I Be? Travel in 0.0 is pretty safe if you take precautions. I like to always assume the worst, even though on most trips you won't encounter a single person. I don't like risk. * If you're carrying something you can't afford to lose, in addition to following the below steps, use a scout! With someone scouting one system ahead in a shuttle, travel in 0.0 with a few Warp Core Stabilizers is virtually risk-free. * If this is a route you will travel often you should setup safespots within scanner range for both the in- and out-gate of every system you pass through. If there are hostiles in system, warp to the safespot and scan the gate, then warp to the gate if it is safe. Make sure your scanner/overview is setup to show mobile warp boobles, this option is off by default and it should never be, make sure every one of your custom overview settings shows boobles. * If you are in a frigate, the only things you have to worry about are bubbles and guys camping gates with fast-locking interceptors. * If you are in a frigate with at least two warp stabilizers, the only things you have to worry about are bubbles and huge camps where multiple inties scramble you before you can enter warp (rare). * There is no good way to counter bubbles. The worst thing about them is if you're blown up you're nearly guaranteed to be podded too. Avoid them by checking the map for players active in a system, and ships/pods killed in the last hour. You can be pretty sure there's a bubble up if the pods:kills ratio is nearly 1:1. Bubbles are often seen around the N-RAEL system, and from interdictors floating around the pipes between RA Prime and RA Cassini / Destiny. * If you are flying a cruiser and want to be super safe, fit three warp core stabilizers, plus some inertial stabilizers if you have more slots. Fit shield extenders or a plate. Fit a microwarp drive and a capacitor battery. This gives you the most flexibility possible. Intertia stabilizers make you enter warp faster. The microwarp drive helps you escape a bubble if you jump in on one but are close to its periphery. * The slower your ship is to align, the more warp stabilizers you need to reduce risk. It is, however, unlikely you'll ever be scrambled for more than 6 points. * If you're in a hauler and don't know what to do with your midslots, fit an afterburner or ECM Multispecs. Three jammers will break the lock of a lone tackler, which is the most common enemy of a solo hauler. If you're not using it for mining, then for fuck's sake, fit a WCS even though it costs you cargohold. Don't mix high-volume and high-value cargo. High volume stuff like crokite or tritanium needs to be transported in a hauler, and you just have to take the additional risk. Low volume expensive things like blueprints, zydrine or Tech II modules are absolutely not worth the risk a hauler brings. Transport them in a combat ship, a frigate loaded with WCS, or a CovOps. How to Play the Docking Game It's generally safe to undock. When you undock, there's a 20 second timer before you're allowed to redock. During this time, you are invulnerable for those 20 seconds if you do not do anything. Don't click to fly anywhere, warp anywhere, or activate any modules. Just click on the station square and spam the dock button. Once the timer is up, you can redock before anyone can hurt you. If you want to have a way to undock from a station even when it's camped, make an Insta Undock. This will help against anything but bubble camps. This is GENERALLY safe, but if there are a very large number of ships outside the station, loading the grid may take longer than 20 seconds. This will result in a "black screen" death. This can and should be petitioned. Also, several Minmatar "shitbrick" stations cannot be safely undocked from, especially the main station at Rens. Finally, keep in mind that you CAN be killed while redocking. A MWD bump from a Comedy Battleship can throw you out of undocking range, resulting in horrible death rape. This is not petitionable - it's a risk you should keep in mind. If you're in something totally badass and can take everyone that's sitting at the undock point, and all their friends that can warp to the station, you can undock, shoot shit and blow it up, and then stop shooting and wait for your 15 second agression timer to go down so you can redock. These situations are pretty rare, and baiting undockers with a larger force just offscreen is common. Don't do this unless you're absolutely sure. Jumping Into A System * You will be cloaked when you jump in, so go ahead and jump in unless the map shows something really nasty. * Once you jump in, stay cloaked and don't touch anything. chill, take a breather OMG There's TONS of people on overview!!! (or maybe like just 2). * You have some time, so you can do this right. * Have a look at what you're pointing at and consider warping to something you can align to faster than the next gate, such as a planet or asteroid belt. DO NOT WARP TO A MOON - in 0.0 space there is a good chance a moon will have a hostile POS that will instantly pop you before you can warp away. * If it's just a few people and you have warp stabilizers it's likely none of them are very close to you so they can only disrupt or maybe one guy will scramble. Therefore you'll probably be fine. Warp away. * If it looks like you're completely fucked - dozens of ships around you and a bubble - and you don't want to die, you can always press Ctrl Q to leave the game safely. If you do this while still cloaked, your ship will disappear in two minutes, but be aware that you can now (as of Kali) be probed out in less than a minute if the hostiles have a probe launcher handy, so there's a chance you may still die. Also, if you log back in after this, you get dropped right back to where you were, uncloaked, so before you log back in, make sure the campers have left their place. It's also a tactic that is frowned upon by many people, both within and without Goonfleet. Jumping Towards A Stargate If you jump into a system, and there's lots of people in local, but no one on the gate you are just on, it's likely they're on the exit gate of this system. * If you have a cloak fitted, drop your jumpcloak and immediately activate your cloaking module while heading away from the gate. If there's a large and hostile gang in the system, there might already be scouts in warp to the other gates in the system to find you. * While still cloaked, check who they are. If it's a friendly corp, just go ahead and warp. If it's hostiles, you have to check them out first. Check if the gate is within 15 AU. If it is, open your scanner (Ctrl+F11), put the distance to max and the angle to 5°. OK i'm safespotted what do i do? * Make sure your safespot doesnt suck. Big camps will nearly always have a covops, usually on the other side of their gate but sometimes also in-system. He will be bored and would love to probe out shitty safespots. See below for how to make a good safespot * Once you're in a good safespot eject from your ship and warp your pod to the gate at 100km. Check it out. If it's empty or not much to worry about then go back to your SS and warp to your destination gate at 0. How to Make a Good Safespot Please read the Safespot guide. Category: Survival in 0.0 space